This week The Coaching Journey is excited to welcome Ian Barker on the podcast. Ian is best known for his current role as the Director of Coaching Education with the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA). Previously, Ian has coached at the collegiate level, most notably winning the NCAA National Championship with the University of Wisconsin. He has experience as the Director of Coaching and Player Development with Minnesota Youth Soccer Association as well as working with US Region II Olympic Development Program, leading teams to Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Costa Rica, England, Germany, Italy, Scotland and Switzerland. Ian’s credentials are extremely impressive, but perhaps more impressive is the thousands of coaches he and the NSCAA have helped educate. He is an excellent educator and many coaches have a story of their own personal interaction with him. Today’s chat is a fascinating discussion on youth development as well as coach education from one of the country’s best! Make sure to check out the NSCAA website http://www.nscaa.com/ to discover all the benefits that they offer! Ian can be found on twitter @BarkerNSCAA

This week, we’re very excited to welcome Kieran Smith on the podcast. Kieran is a former player, current academy coach in Spain with AD Alcorcon. His experience sees him having worked in professional setups in Scotland, England, and Spain, as well as the United States briefly. He has a UEFA A License and is in the process of completing his UEFA Pro License. Kieran is also well known for his excellent tactical analysis pieces as well as his very well received work on rondos. His 10 match tactical analysis piece on Atletico Madrid can be found here: http://www.slideshare.net/Kieran85uk/atletico-madrid-10-match-tactical-analysis . Perhaps his most famous work, “Rondos- How to use Spain’s secret weapon” can be found here: http://www.slideshare.net/Kieran85uk/rondos-how-to-use-spains-secret-weapon . Listen to our insightful discussion as we discuss youth development abroad and its comparisons here! Kieran can be found on twitter @KieranSmith1

This week we begin our new weekly feature, “The Journey,” in which we have a one-on-one chat with a professional involved with the game. Our inaugural episode of The Journey sees us very excited to welcome John O’Sullivan! John is the founder of the Changing the Game Project, an esteemed author, a former player, and coach from grassroots to professional levels in the United States. His calling has seen him found Changing the Game Project whose mission is to “ensure that we return youth sports to our children, and put the ‘play’ back in ‘play ball.’” Listen to his insightful conversation as we cover various topics regarding youth development and youth sports! John can be found on Twitter at @CoachJohnnyO and be sure to visit his fantastic website: http://changingthegameproject.com/ as well as his various books on offer: http://changingthegameproject.com/resource-center/